Description: There has been a lot of concern about the effective videogame violence, but what about positive effects of gaming? This article discusses the possibility that engaging in action gaming may have a long-term positive effect on the executive function of the brains of gamers.

Source: The Inquisitive Mind, Experience in Action Games and the Effects on Executive Control, Tilo Stroback and Torsten Schubert.

Despite concern about the negative effects of using certain kinds of games other positive effects of gaming? Is been a great deal of interest over the last two years across a broad range of research topics in executive functions. Executive functions are the ways by which people (or people’s brains) control their thoughts, their emotions, and their ongoing behaviour. Basically executive functions regulate how we process information and manage our thought processes. The turn out to be quite important and we manage ourselves and the world.

Gaming, particularly in action games, seems to lead to positive effects on our ability to shift between different informational inputs which in turn can positively affect our ability to process information generally. The article describes a number of studies that provide us with a good overview of how the sort of research proceeds and what sort of things we can learn by paying attention to what happens in people’s brains while they game.

Questions for Discussion:

What are some of the ways in which gaming, particularly in action games, might positively influence our mental functioning?

Are there implications of the parent effects of gaming on executive function for how we approach and possibly plan for cognitive aging?

What are some of the other areas we might see potential benefits of gaming experience in relation to broader aspects of everyday life?

References (Read Further):

See the list of references attached to the article linked to above in this blog.